Faced with a surge in illegal immigrants and delays in assisting immigrants, Atty. Gen. William P. Barr will announce today a major expansion of the Immigration and Naturalization Service that includes hiring 300 agents to help patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.

McALLEN, Texas - When Rep. Leonard Lance, a Republican from New Jersey, toured the U.S. border with Mexico last week, he saw more than 20-foot-high barricades outside San Diego, a surveillance drone base in Arizona and patrol boats on the Rio Grande in Texas. Lance also spotted a body floating in the tall Spanish cane in an elbow of the Rio Grande. Border Patrol agents told him the man may have drowned trying to swim across from Mexico, or may have been killed by cartel members in a drug deal gone bad. "To see a dead body right here," Lance said, "is a dramatic indication that we have to do a better job" on border security.

As part of a far-reaching and innovative plan for preventing war, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has proposed that U.N. troops take on the new role of patrolling the borders of countries that fear aggression by their neighbors.

Re "Immigration bill gains support - at a price," June 23 Add 20,000 more Border Patrol officers to protect us from poor people gambling with their lives and freedom, and several more drones to check it all out, and "we've practically militarized the border," according to a pleased Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Add in the National Security Agency's surveillance of all of us, a "kill list" that our president justifies as the equivalent of a SWAT team responding to a sniper (and that includes American citizens)

A report released this week says that the U.S. government spends more on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement combined. That should help silence Republican lawmakers who have steadfastly insisted that the Obama administration is doing too little to combat illegal immigration. Not only has the administration made enforcement the focus of its immigration policy, spending $18 billion last year and deporting more immigrants than any previous administration, but the number of people detained by federal officials nearly doubled from about 200,000 per year in 2001 to close to 400,000 in 2011, according to the study by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank.

The border barriers rise out of the Pacific Ocean, climb craggy California peaks, streak across Arizona desert valleys and meander through cattle ranches and fields of sorghum and citrus in South Texas. Tall steel fencing separates border communities. Camera towers and bright rows of stadium lights aim at smugglers' enclaves in Mexico. Migrants seeking out traditional crossing routes find them blocked, and many give up. But migrants still get across, by seeking out the one road or one mountain range or one desert trail beyond the reach of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Even those who are appalled by Arizona's harsh new immigration law — as we are — recognize that the state's misguided decision to take federal matters into its own legislative hands did not come out of the blue. Arizona is the preferred superhighway for drug and human smugglers. Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the nation, and almost all of those abducted are either illegal immigrants or linked to the drug trade. The recent killing of a rancher in southern Arizona has increased the sense of lawlessness and danger at the border; police believe the killer was involved with drug trafficking.

Congress gave final approval Thursday to a $600-million border security package that President Obama had sought to tighten the border with Mexico — a move supporters hope will open a broader political discussion on comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate gave quick final approval to the measure in an unusual special session that was arranged to rectify an earlier procedural glitch. The House had passed the bill without dissent Tuesday, and Obama is expected to sign it Friday.

WASHINGTON - Some Republican senators said Thursday that they could support a new compromise border security plan but civil rights groups were outraged at a proposal they said would “militarize” the border with Mexico as a trade-off for GOP votes on the immigration overhaul. As many as 20,000 new Border Patrol officials, 700 miles of fencing and more surveillance drones would protect the border under the tentative $30-billion-plus deal reached with Republicans. Budget hawks were stunned at the hefty price tag, even though the extra costs would be paid for with new taxes and fees on immigrants and employers seeking guest-worker visas.

WASHINGTON - One is a former farm state governor, one of only two mustachioed men in the Senate. The other is a self-made millionaire whose Southern drawl belies an impatience with the slow-moving Congress. These two senators, an odd couple of sorts, have emerged as unlikely players in the immigration overhaul. Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) quietly orchestrated the "border surge," a bipartisan compromise that may bring enough Republican support next week to pass a sweeping immigration overhaul - and its path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in this country without legal status.

WASHINGTON - Some Republican senators said Thursday that they could support a new compromise border security plan but civil rights groups were outraged at a proposal they said would “militarize” the border with Mexico as a trade-off for GOP votes on the immigration overhaul. As many as 20,000 new Border Patrol officials, 700 miles of fencing and more surveillance drones would protect the border under the tentative $30-billion-plus deal reached with Republicans. Budget hawks were stunned at the hefty price tag, even though the extra costs would be paid for with new taxes and fees on immigrants and employers seeking guest-worker visas.

WASHINGTON - The sweeping immigration overhaul bill received a boost Tuesday as senators appeared to narrow their differences on border security and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that newly legal immigrants would provide more than enough new tax revenue, fees and economic growth to offset the bill's costs. The budget report gives momentum to the legislation and could be particularly important in attracting Republicans in both the Senate and House who have made spending issues a priority.

WASHINGTON - In the first and only vote Thursday on the immigration bill, senators turned back a Republican measure that would have delayed a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally until after the border with Mexico is fully secure. Republicans still plan to offer several other measures to enhance border security, but this one, from Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, was one of the most hard-line of the proposals. The 57-43 vote to defeat the amendment offered an imprecise test of whether the Senate will find the 60 votes needed to pass the bill.

WASHINGTON - With an overwhelming vote, the Senate on Tuesday launched debate on an ambitious overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, as Republicans, most of whom have not yet embraced the effort, declined to stand in the way of bringing it to the floor. But continuing doubts within the GOP about some of the bill's central elements, particularly on border security, could doom the effort. Republicans in the Senate and House want tighter control of the border with Mexico before the estimated 11 million people who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas would be allowed to gain permanent legal status.

WASHINGTON - The Senate immigration bill is poised to undergo a decidedly rightward shift in an attempt to attract more Republican votes, but that threatens to erode bipartisan consensus. Democratic and Republican authors of the bill have expressed a willingness to make changes and toughen the border security provisions as the sweeping immigration overhaul heads to the floor next week. But a debate has emerged over how much is too much. Leading the effort to engage Republicans is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a key author of the bipartisan Senate immigration overhaul, is working on a proposal that would give Congress, not the Obama administration, the authority to devise a plan to bolster border security. The Florida senator has long insisted that the bill's border security provisions are not strong enough to win significant Republican support. He plans to introduce his proposal as the legislation moves to the Senate floor late this week or next.

WASHINGTON - As a sweeping immigration bill moves forward in the Senate, Republicans are demanding stronger border security measures than those agreed upon during four months of bipartisan negotiation. The process of toughening the bill could win additional votes from the GOP, but there is also a risk of losing Democratic support if the amendments go too far. "If, in fact, the American people can't trust that the border is controlled, you're never going to be able to pass this bill," Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told four officials from the Department of Homeland Security during a hearing Tuesday.